Best Friend Meets Hope
by Lord-of-Dragons2007
Summary: This is a story that is more centered on Maya, oh her family and on how her mother finds true love in Shawn Hunter and he finds love in Maya's mom and then eventually becomes her father. Because theyre all three way too cute, I hope you enjoy this fluffy story.
1. Chapter 1

**Best Friend Meets Hope**

 **By: Lord-of-Dragons2007**

 **A/N:** I do not own the characters, concepts, and so on so please enjoy.

Maya sat on the couch of the little living room of the little apartment she shared with her mother, even though she was outwardly cool about the whole situation she couldn't be any more excited than she already was. If she was any more excited people would have mistaken her for her friend Riley, though she supposed one of them (Maya and her mother) needed to be composed, they both couldn't be running around tonight like they were chickens with their heads cut off,

"Come on mom, you're gonna be late!" Maya called out as she went back to her sketch pad, the page Maya was on just showed a lot of eraser marks. She wasn't usually this unfocused when it came to drawing, though with what was going on it was understandable. A few minuets Katie Hart entered the living room, dressed up in a beautiful red dress, her long blonde hair straightened and curled slightly at the edges, and she wore make up that complimented the red dress she was wearing, on her feet where a pair of tall shiny red high heels,

"Wow." Maya said with a smile as she looked at her mom, Katie just smiled at her daughter,

"Thanks" Katie said shyly as she started to blush a little bit,

"How much time until Shawn gets here?" Maya asked her mom who was about to answer when the door bell rang,

"Umm none." Katie answered nervously before she gave out a little nervous chuckle, she quickly came over to the front door, and then Maya had a mischievous look on her face,

"Who is it!?" Maya called out playfully, Shawn who was on the other side of the door flailed a little bit hearing Maya's voice,

"Mr. Chin's Chinese!" Shawn called out joking as well, as the door opened and and Katie showed herself off to her date that's when Shawn just looked at her with an in awe smile on his face, she was just so beautiful, he couldn't get over how amazingly beautiful she was, she was like him, she cleaned up nicely. Katie gave Shawn a nervous smile as she tried to read his expression,

"So how do I look?" Katie asked him,

"Wow" Shawn replied after a second as his awestruck smile turned into an excited and happy smile, Katie smiled,

"Wow yourself, look at you." Katie said as she looked at Shawn. He trimmed up his beard, his hair was subtly slicked back but not oily or greasy, he wore a dark brown button down dress shirt with a light brown sports jacket with faded blue jeans that seemed to be well loved, on his feet were comfortable but stylish brown dressy like shoes. Shawn blushed a little bit and smiled at her words,

"Yeah Hunter, you clean up good." Maya commented in a chipper tone as she smiled and watcher her mother fawn over the guy she hoped would someday be her father, Shawn just blushed a little bit more at Maya's words now and just waved his hand to get her to stop with the smartass remarks,

"Ready to go?" Shawn Katie, his attention fully focused on her. Even though he wasn't sure he was husband or father material if he was true with himself he was liking the way things were looking right now, Maya was as cute as a button after she took his advice and changed the way she looked and of course her mother was always absolutely stunning,

"Umm, before you guys go." Maya called out to them sounding a little unsure,

"What is it babygirl?" Katie replied to her daughter,

"I was wondering if you both could walk me to Riley's house?" She asked them both hopefully as she bit her lip nervously, both Shawn and Katie smiled at her. Shawn motioned over exaggeratedly his hand and body towards the door,

"Sure, come on kiddo." He said happily, which elicited an excited little squeal from Maya as she grabbed her backpack which had everything she would need for a sleepover with her best friend and headed towards her mom and Shawn. Maya lead the way with Shawn and her mother following behind her, when they got down to the street she held her mothers hand and they started walking towards Riley's apartment. After a few steps Shawn caught up to the mother and daughter and he grabbed Maya's free hand and held it too while they walked, Maya was a little surprised by this but then quickly pushed the thought out of head. She smiled and let the previous thought be replaced by an even better thought, he looked to her left and there was her mother, beautiful and smiling. She looked to her right and there was Shawn who was strong and compassionate and she knew he cared very deeply for her, for a brief moment she imagined that Shawn married her mother and was her father. She wasn't Maya Hart, she was Maya Hunter, she smiled brightly enough to light up the whole New York block like it was midday as she thought about this was what she wanted, to have her hands held by her mother and and her father, that she was sandwiched between her parents as they walked.

After some time they finally got to the building and stood outside, "Alright, heres your stop, kiddo." Shawn said with a smile,

"Need us to walk you to the door?" Katie asked her,

"No its ok, you two enjoy your date. Thanks for letting me tag along for a little bit of it." Maya answered and thanked them,

"Anytime, maybe next week we can all three do something fun together, just the three of us." Shawn said which made both women smile brightly,

"You're on Hunter." Maya said playfully trying to sound tough,

"Try not to stay up too late, ok, and don't forget to bush your teeth." Katie said having to go though the whole parent sepal,

"I know I know, go on get out of here you two." Maya joked as she waved her hands in a 'shooing' motion, both adults chuckled and waved bye and walked away to their date. Maya smiled as she watched them leave for a moment, she then turned around walked up to the front door of the apartment building and rang the button for Riley and her family. After a moment or two she was buzzed in and headed inside, she took the elevator the right floor and knocked on the door to the Matthew's apartment. Cory answered the door happy as always to see is second daughter,

"Maya, come on in." he greeted and then moved out of the way to let the girl come into the apartment, Auggie was watching tv in the living room/den, Topanga was still busy making dinner, Cory was grading papers on the dinning room table, and Riley was in her room working on her homework,

"Hey everyone." Maya greeted Auggie and Topanga,

"Hey Maya, dinner will be ready in a bit." Topanga greeted from across the apartment in the tiny kitchenette, Maya came over to Cory and looked over his shoulder in an annoying fashion that only she could pull off,

"Whatcha doing?" Maya asked in a sugary sweet tone to which Cory turned his head to look at her like 'was she seriously asking this?',

"I'm playing racket ball." He replied smartly to her,

"Kinda looks like today's quiz." Maya said musingly,

"It is." Cory confirmed to her,

"Oh look that's mine!" Maya said in feigned excitement,

"Yup." Cory said as he looked back and forth between the answer key and Maya's quiz,

"Looks like an A to me." Maya said hopefully, and as hard as it was for Cory to do it, he had a moral obligation to his profession. He marked the answers she got wrong as wrong and wrote a 'C'on the paper, Maya groaned a little bit when she saw what he did,

"Hey if its any consolation, you did a lot better than you usually do." Cory said trying to make things better, but didn't really work out,

"Its rigged Matthews, I never had a chance." Maya said smartly feigning a tough gangster tone,

"Its rigged daddy she never had a chance!" Riley called out from her bedroom which made Cory flail for a second and then he rolled his eyes and smiled,

"Alright enough out of the peanut gallery!" he called out to her which caused Riley to go into a fit of giggles that could be heard from out in the dining room/kitchen where Cory and Maya were at,

"Go on, you know where chuckles is at." he smartly but still lovingly to Maya. Maya chuckled and headed away from her teacher and towards her friend.

Maya entered Riley's room and found Riley sitting at her bay window reading the latest issue of the more recently trendy teen magazine,

"What up loser?" Maya greeted in her usual fashion as she crossed the room and sat down next to her best friend in the bay window,

"So I saw you coming down the street." Riley said in an overly excited voice, hearing her talk about her that way was a little embarrassing but Maya didn't care. She was happy holding her mom's and and Shawn's hand and walking in between them,

"Ok so?" Maya asked cooly like nothing was out of the ordinary,

"Oh come on, we're not going to talk about how much you smiled as you walked in between them on your way here? We're not going to talk about how happy your mom and Uncle Shawn were when they left for their date?" Riley asked her excitedly as she started to get huffy and puffy,

"Mmm no not gonna happen, not in the cards today, but how are you doing sweetie?" Maya asked patronizingly,

"I'm all worked up and want to know everything!" Riley said with a bit of a huff and a puff in her voice,

"I know pumpkin." Maya said in a feigned comforting voice as she put her hand on Riley's hand.

At that moment Farkle opened up Riley's window and poked his head though and smiled at both of them slyly,

"Ladies!" Farkle said trying to be sly and cool but was just coming off more like cheesy and geeky, but no one cared he was cool in own special way,

"Farkle!" the two girls greeted happily,

"Maya wont tell me whats going on inside that head of hers, her mom is on a date with my Uncle Shawn." Riley blurted out hoping Farkle would help her get the information out of her best friend,

"Why don't you wanna tell us Maya? We wanna know how happy and excited you are." Farkle said seriously,

"Yes, tell us, tell us right now!" Riley added as she started to get all worked up again.

"you wanna know why?" Maya asked them both,

"Tell us, tell us right no!" Riley repeated still just as huffy,

"Because I, don't, hear, you." Maya said before she started to sing her little diddy that she usually did when she wanted ignore an issue, when she was sure she was safe she turned to Farkle,

"What are you doing here Farkle?" Maya asked him curiously,

"I'm always on the prowl for my ladies." Farkle responded slyly which made both girls roll their eyes at him,

"Farkle?" They both chimed in, pressing him for the truth,

"Ok, I was gonna meet Lucas to go see the new action movie around the corner and he said he was running a little late." Farkle answered truthfully, even hearing his name made Riley giddy,

"Lucas, hello." Riley said with a suggestive voice almost like the response was programmed, Farkle and Maya looked at Riley like she was a crazy woman and then shrugged it off like it was typical Riley, which it was.

"What are you doing here Maya?" Farkle asked her curiously, "What? I'm always here." Maya replied nonchalantly, she received a look from Riley and Farkle,

"Her mom is on a date with uncle Shawn and she didn'twant to be home alone." Riley snitched on her which earned her a look from Maya that said if she didn't love her friend so much she would kill her, but Riley didn't care, it wasn't like it a matter of national security.

"So things between them are finally taking off huh." Farkle said with a smile, he was happy that this was going well. He had only heard the headlines of what was going on between Maya's mom and Riley's uncle Shawn, he hoped that things went all the way with those two. He had only heard things about Riley's uncle Shawn and he sounded like a pretty good guy. He hoped that he became her father, he knew that she was always looking for that father figure in her life. He knew she saw Riley's dad that and now more so with Riley's uncle Shawn.

At Farkle's words Maya couldn't hide the smile the grew on her face and neither could she hide the blush on her face,

"Yeah they are." She said happily with a happy and hopeful look on her face, Farkle was about to say something else before he was cut off,

"Girl's dinner's here." Topanga called out from the other room,

"Coming mom." Riley called out,

"Come on lets go eat." Riley said to Maya,

"You wanna come join us Farkle." Riley asked her friend,

"No its ok, I have a hankering for some chile cheese fries, I'll catch you ladies later." he said with a smile before he closed the window and the two girls moved out of Riley's room.

 **A/N: Ok so this is my first try at girl meets world, so please be gentle with me and I hope you all like it =)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Best Friend Meets Hope**

 **By: Lord-of-Dragons2007**

 **A/N:** I do not own the characters, concepts, and so on so please enjoy.

Farkle left and Riley and Maya closed the window and left Riley's room for dinner, Topanga had brought a couple of large pizzas home with her from work. She had been working hard on a new case and was coming home pretty worn and was content with bringing home dinner for everyone. She smiled as she saw her handsomely dorky husband open the door for her,

"Ooohhh hello my love." Cory said excitedly, which put a big smile on his wife's face,

"Aww, hey." Topanga replied in a lovey dovey voice,

"Oh hey." Cory answered as he took the pizza from his wife's hands as he looked up to address her. The lovey dovey expression drooped from her face, though she knew it was Cory being Cory. Topanga lifted her head to look at the kids with a nonchalant smile on her face,

"My whole life." Topanga said as she walked in and closed the door to the apartment and set her stuff down and came to the table to start eating, she was starving. Cory always had his way of restoring her faith in him with the little things he did, like tonight he had set the table and had gotten plates out, the red pepper flakes to put on the pizza, the parmesan cheese for the same purpose, and had gotten everyone a napkin and a soda to drink. Topanga turned her head and smiled as she watched her husband start to open up a pizza box and start to serve her,

"Kiss kiss?" Topanga asked again in a lovey dovey tone,

"Oh, yes yes." Cory answered before he bent over and gave her a quick peck on the lips before he put her plate down in front of her and went to serve himself,

"Ewww stop right there, I thought agreed no making out at the table." Riley said in a serious and grossed out tone though she was just joking with them,

"What? It was only a quick little peck on –" Cory started to defend,

"Eww no stop, I don't wanna know." Riley continued over dramatically,

"Yeah ok." Cory said giving and realizing that Riley was just messing with them,

"Its ok daddy, I like when you kiss mommy because then I know you both love each other." Auggie said so innocently that it melted everyone's heart,

"Though I'm with Riley, it sometimes can be kinda gross." Auggie added after a moment, and at that moment the two adults in the room looked at each other with a panicked look. The two were always so careful as to not make out or anything in front of the kids, however when they were alone they tried to satisfy their adult cravings. Because of this and what Auggie said had caused them to panic a little bit. They wondered if Auggie had walked in on them and seen something he wasn't supposed to see,

"Riley how was your day!" Topanga said with an over enthusiastic smile and tone in her voice as she was quickly trying to change the conversation,

"I got up, it was a sunny day, I love a sunny day, I went to school, I loved my friends, and I came here." Riley answered dorkily with a cheesy smile on her face. Shawn's description of her was pretty aped, she was definitely Cory with Topanga's hair. Topanga however was hoping for a little more than that out of her daughter, but she really didn't expect any less out of her than what she just got,

"Maya, how was your day." Topanga asked again this time in a more frantic tone and gave her a look that almost said 'please save me here',

"I woke up it was a sunny day, I hate a sunny, I went school, I hate school, and I came here." Maya sounding almost the exact polar opposite of Riley, though she did it over exaggeratedly and everyone knew she was joking. Ever since Shawn had really come into her and her mother's life she had been happier, more applied in school, and most of all, she had hope in her life,

"What about you Cory? Anything happen today?" Topanga asked still trying to get a conversation going but it was like lighting your last match on a windy night,

"I got up, the world span on, I taught about Iceland and Greenland. Those Jerks, and I came here." He answered her just like his daughter and her best friend though it was still just as lame as their answers. Topanga gave up and just stuffed her face with a mouth full of pizza, luckily for Topanga and by extension Cory Auggie didn't give what he saw another thought and just let it go. Everyone ate their meals happily and telling funny stories.

Meanwhile a few blocks away Shawn and Katy were in the middle of their date, things were going about as awkward as anyone would have guessed, they were in a new trendy Italian restaurant that Cory had suggested and they both were really feeling out of place and awkward, not just because of the restaurant but because of each other. They really hadn't had time to really really talk to each other and for whatever reason now it was hard to talk when before it wasn't that hard, what was getting the best of them now was just nerves, they were nervous and wanted to make a good impression on each other. They both cared for the other so much that they didn't want to do anything that would scare the other off, they had both been left by people they thought were going to be forever and scars like that always leave a bit of a phantom pain. Finally Shawn couldn't take it anymore, he needed to get rid of this tension and awkwardness,

"So…Maya seems to be a lot chipper these days." Shawn said trying to get some conversation out of Katy and hopefully get her and himself to relax enough to have a good time,

"Yeah, I don't know what's happened just….She seems so much happier and at peace with herself lately." Katy answered, what Katy wasn't sharing was that she suspected it was because Shawn was in her life now,

"So uhh how did you find this place Shawn?" Katy asked her date curiously,

"Cory. Cory suggested this place, said it was fancy and would make a good date." Shawn answered, though he was second guessing his choice of coming here with Katy, he knew she was just like him, she wasn't fancy or anything and that's what helped with things. At that moment he realized why he felt so uncomfortable and why she felt so uncomfortable, it was this place. It wasn't them, they weren't these extravagant people that came to places like this, it was at that moment that the table next to them got their food. The gentleman removed the lid on his and there were a plate of steaming snails, both Katy and Shawn looked at the man's slimy plate as took his fork and started to fish around the shell for the delicacy and they couldn't watch any more. They turned to each other and they immediately knew what the other was thinking,

"I think I saw a nice burger joint on the way over, you game?" Shawn asked Katy quickly,

"Check please." Katy called out to a waiter to get the check for the drinks they had. Once the bill was paid they grabbed their coats and almost ran out of the restaurant,

"Well now that the awkwardness is out of the way let the real date start." Shawn said trying to sound cool for Katy,

"Oh ok mister cool." Katy started sounding as tough as her daughter before she gently wrapped her arms around Shawn's arm lovingly and tenderly,

"Let's get this date on the road then." Katy finished tenderly, Shawn was a little taken back by the way Katy grabbed his arm and the way she spoke, but then he quickly melted into her embrace. He smiled and thought to himself, this was so much easier than he thought it was going to be, that this was so much easier than when he was with Angela. The couple walked down the street to the burger place they passed on the way over to the suggested restaurant, at this point whatever tension they had between seemed to vanish as they were now talking and laughing their way down the street,

"-And then she pushed him against the lockers and planted one on him." Shawn went on with his story which caused Katy to laugh her head off and was thankful she was holding onto Shawn's arm because she would have fallen over laughing,

"Wow, I don't think I'll ever see the two the same way again." Katy said laughing just thinking about younger Cory and Topanga,

"Well here we are, ladies first." Shawn said as he opened the door open for her,

"Thank you kind sir." Katy said with a fancy English accent,

"Good show kind lady." Shawn replied with a cheesy accent of his own as he entered too, the place was a little busy because it was a Friday night but it wasn't too bad. The good thing was that it was a fun place to be, tonight the New York Giants were playing the Philadelphia Eagles and everyone had their eyes on the TV screens while they ate their burgers,

"Hey the game is on. You like football Katy? He exclaimed excitedly before he asked her his question curiously, she smiled as she looked up at him,

"Honey, I LOVE football, I was the only girl in a family of boys." Katy explained confidently, she was the middle child of three children her younger and older siblings were both boys so the three of them would often watch sports, rough house, and occasionally wrestle, maybe it was because of this her and Shawn got along so well was because they were so alike,

"Great." He said excitedly as he led her over to an open table before they missed their chance to get a table. As soon as they sat down a waitress came with a couple of menus and a smile on her face,

"Hello, what can I get you all to drink?" She asked the couple,

"Katy want a beer?" Shawn asked her curiously,

"Sure, I'll take a Blue Moon." Katy answered,

"Make that two." Shawn added in,

"Alright coming up." She said as she walked away to get their drinks. Katy and Shawn looked at each other and smiled, this was more their speed, the tension they had was practically gone though they were still a little awkward with each other, but that was something that was going to go away in time,

"So, Katy you have a couple of brothers?" he asked her curiously since she had brought it up, he realized he didn't know that much about her and well a date was the perfect time to get to know someone better,

"Yeah a younger and an older one." Katy answered his question,

"Of course boys being boys thought they could beat up on their sister when we were kids but what they didn't count on was that this sister could kick their butts." Katy added after a moment or two with a chuckle as she remembered some of the more memorable times when they all wrestled and she always came up on top, this caused Shawn to chuckle,

"Well just proves something that I already knew about you, that youre a tough lady Katy." Shawn said earnestly and in awe of her, it took guts to be a single working mother. She could have folded and done things she would have been proud of but here she was with her daughter who was just a tough as she was and making things work, he admired her for doing what she needed to do to raise such an amazing daughter and being able to provide for her and herself. Katy blushed at his compliment,

"Thank you, Shawn." Katy said gently before she jumped up and cheered with everyone else around them cheering that the Giants caught an interception and were going to start their drive, Shawn just shook his head with a smile on his face and just chuckled at the scene, but the smile was more for the smile on Katy's face, for her getting so into the game. When Katy sat back down she blushed at her reaction,

"Sorry about that." Katy apologized sheepishly to which Shawn shook his head at,

"Don't be." Shawn said gently,

"You be you." He added after a moment.

Meanwhile back at the Matthews house they had already finished their meal and had moved into the living room and were playing Monopoly in teams. Cory and Topanga against Riley and Maya against Auggie and Ava, the kids were however unknowingly to the adults were on one big team against Cory and Topanga. This proved to be a good plan as both teams were taking it to Cory and Topanga, the game was decidedly lopsided in the sense that the adults only had one deed and it was the cheapest one on the board while the kids owned everything else and had hotels on them,

"Matthews I gotta say I don't think I've ever seen this big of a slaughter in a board game." Maya said cockily as she rolled and landed on one of Auggies pricier hotels and paid the man his fee like it was chump change,

"Here you go kid, keep the change, buy your girl something pretty." Maya said to the little boy,

"Let's go to Bloomingdales and spend it." Ava said excitedly,

"Why would you do that to me?!" Auggie asked Maya excitedly which elected a chuckle from everyone. Cory however wasn't amused by losing at Monopoly,

"Hey what happened to my killer shark wife? We were supposed to kill at this game." He asked her in a hushed and feigned angry voice,

"I don't know….This one got away from me." Topanga said in a dazed and confused tone as she just looked at the board and surveyed how they had played the game,

"Its ok mom, it was expected that you would lose that killer instinct when you got older, I'll take care of you." Riley said sweetly with a bit of a dark edge to her voice, Riley didn't mean anything bad by it she was just getting into the situation of the game,

"Topanga glared at her trying to give her that killer shark glare that she had and to her surprise she was met by the same glare staring right back at her, Topanga blinked and couldn't maintain the staring contest. Riley smiled at wining the little stare down game, Cory witnessed the whole thing with a horrified look on his face, how could his wife lose? She never lost,

"Just roll." Topanga said as she crossed her arms and huffed like a bratty child having a temper tantrum as she threw herself back into the couch. Auggie rolled and landed on Riley and Maya's hotel and paid them their fee,

"Here you go mommy." Auggie said as he got up and went around and handed his mother the dice, this made Topanga smile,

"Thanks Auggie." She said happily as she took the dice rolled, she moved the token and unfortunately landed on the boardwalk hotel which had the highest fee. Topanga and Cory groaned and Riley and Maya cheered,

"Pay up Matthews!" Maya cheered as she held out her hand to Cory for him to pay, unfortunately they had already mortgage their one property and only had a fifty dollar paper left, he held it up with a cheesy smile to Maya,

"IOU?" he asked her hopefully,

"Umm N-O?" Maya said with an equally cheesy smile on her face,

"We declare bankruptcy…" Topanga said in a shocked tone, both teams of kids cheered happily they had won,

"It was a pleasure doing business with you both." Riley said as she shook her brother's hand and Maya shook Ava's hand, Topanga's mouth hung open as she realized what happened,

"This wasn't about us Topanga, it was just good business." Ava said professionally,

"We're ending the game together, Auggie, Ava, Maya, and I are sharing the world of monopoly and we call it day ending as two economic powers." Riley said happily,

"Wanna go watch a movie?" Maya asked Riley,

"Thought you'd never ask." Riley replied as she helped to put away the game, she put the money back in the respective spot along with their game token and the dice. After that the pain disappeared to Riley's room.

 **A/N: This seemed like a good place to stop for this chapter, sorry it took so long to get this one out, its been a crazy few weeks for me since I updated my last story. Things are kinda starting to slow down a bit and I'm gonna start settling into my assignment at work so hopefully things stay slow and I'll have more time to work on stuff from here =). Anyway hope this was a good chapter and I hope you guys like it, please read and review I love hearing what you guys think of my work. I'll catch you guys around =).**


	3. Chapter 3

**Best Friend Meets Hope**

 **By: Lord-of-Dragons2007**

 **A/N:** I do not own the characters, concepts, and so on so please enjoy.

As Riley and Maya entered Riley's room they still had the smiles on their faces and the chuckles in their throats at how they outwitted and out played the adults/mentors in their lives. It really was the perfect plan,

"I don't think I've ever seen your mom that horrified." Maya said with a chuckle in her voice,

"Oh my God yes! I guess I have a little bit of my mom in me after all, I'm not just my dad with my mom's hair." Riley said with a chuckle as she settled on the bed next to Maya with the remote to the tv and started flipping through channels to try and find a movie that sounded good and wasn't half way over. Though this was going to lead to a very interesting dilemma for the the pair, Maya was going to more than likely lean toward a movie that was a little too grown up for them in the sense that it would have tons of violence, cursing, and of course tons of destruction and explosions while Riley could go one of two ways. Either a movie that was a little childish or something more grown up again in the sense that it was touchy/feely and was a typical chick flick, as they flipped through channels they found a couple that only one liked and the other didn't. Eventually they gone through all the channels and didn't find anything that was a good compropise for them both, but that was mainly because they werent looking for the compromise at that point,

"Come on Riles, come to the dark side with me. Watching things blow up is fun!" Maya said trying to convince her friend to come out of the toddler section of the movies and come join her in the adult section,

"Aw but why does it have to be so violent, dancing bunnies through the forest is so much nicer." Riley refuted lightly which made Maya make gagging noises and of course Riley rolled her eyes at her friend's over exaggeration, and the two carried on like this for a little while longer.

Meanwhile in the other room Cory and Topanga had sent Ava home to her parents and they had sent Auggie to get ready for bed, Topanga wasn't one to sit idly by and be bamboozled even if it was by her daughter, which she had to admit it made her a little proud that she inherited the killer instinct from her.

"I know what youre thinking." Cory said as he helped to picked up after that disastrous game of monopoly, Topanga didn't answer she was still fuming a little bit and still trying to formulate a way to get even with the girls,

"Come on honey it was just a game-." Cory started before he let out a little surprised and worried shriek at the look that Topanga gave him, it was a cross between 'I'm gonna kill you' and 'don't mess with me',

"Youre gonna help me with this." Topanga said sternly,

"Who me?" Cory asked giving a nervous smile,

"Oh yeah and I got a great idea too." Topanga said with a crazed look in her eye that made Cory's smile fade and a worried look appear oh his face.

After about half an hour of deliberating on a movie Maya finally won out in the end and instead of a movie decided on watching a cheesy horror movie on netflix, they were half way into the movie when they could smell popcorn being maid and they thought about getting some, couldn't enjoy something this suspenseful without some popcorn to go along with it. Right on cue Topanga walked in with the large bowl and a smile on her face,

"Thought you girls would like some popcorn to go with your movie." She said sweetly, she saw what they were watching and knew it was going to scare them and they kind of deserved it, Topanga was being sweet to lure the girls into a false sense of security and then she was going to spring her plan,

"Thanks mom, youre the best." Riley said sweetly as she took the popcorn and gave her mom a soft kiss on the cheek, Topanga wasn't exactly expecting that. It melted her heart a little bit and she considered calling off her trick, but then she shook her head, she thought Riley did that on purpose to make her forget about the game, the plan was on! Earlier that day Cory had confiscated a couple of thoes nerf ball gun things and enough ammo to orbit Arnold Swartzenegger, this was exactly what she wanted this was going to be her instrument for her revenge on her daughter and her best friend.

As the movie started started to tense up and get to the climax of the story the girls were completely sucked into the story, so much so that they didn't see Cory perching himself outside of the bay window and quietly open the window. He waited for a moment or two when the show reached its climax and then he opened fire on the girls and pelted them with the soft nerf balls, at the sudden movement and things being hurled at them the girls practically jumped out of their skin and hit the ceiling, Riley who was holding the popcorn when she jumped sent popcorn all over her lap and the surrounding are on the floor where she was sitting. Both girls let out loud screams and tried to bolt for the door, they made it as far as the hallway before they ran into Topanaga who was waiting for them with a nerf gun of her own and started to unleash her rounds into the girls. At that moment the two girls realized what was going on and stopped screaming and freaking out and just shielded themselves from the shots. Poor Auggie was about to come ask his mommy to come tuck him in and read him a bedtime story when he heard the screams, he came out of his room and into the hallway and into the line of fire. Though Topanga didn't mean to hit him, he did share some of the responsibility and he got some accidental, mostly just ricochet shots. After a few seconds Topanga ran out of shots and was soon joined behind the table by Cory who came in from the other bay window and gave Topanga a high-five and was chuckling with her at the expression of the girls. The girls and Auggie were not all that amused with the mean prank the parents had pulled on them,

"What was that for?" Maya asked a little angrily and squaring her eyes on them,

"Ha! That's for pulling a fast one on us in monopoly." Topanga said explaining all she needed to to the kids,

"You should have seen them jump when I got things started." Cory laughed at the girls, Riley was smiling at this point and laughing she thought the walkers were getting her, she was thankful that wasn't the case. Maya however wasn't too happy and giggly that the prank was just that a prank,

"This was a prank mommy? All for the game?" Auggie asked pointedly, he wasn't upset just trying to understand why his parents did this,

"Yeah Bubba, it was a prank." Cory answered his son,

"Wow mommy, you need help." Auggie said sounding more like the grown up than anyone in the apartment,

"I do not, you don't know what youre talking about." Topanga refuted back, Auggie crossed his arms and gave her a look,

"One moment.." he said before he went to his room and pulled out a little blue box with a button on it, he held it out and then pressed the button and the sound of a synthetic trumpet played,

"da da daa!" the box sounded off,

"I win!" Topanga called out excitedly with a twinkle in her eye and then she came out of it and then frowned,

"Oh my God, I need help." She said as he calmed down,

"Hes right, I'm sorry girls." Topanga apologized sheepishly,

"Its ok mom, I forgive you." Riley said chuckling at the joke, she had to admit it was kinda funny how she jumped and sent popcorn all over the place,

"Ok I forgive you….but this means war." Maya said a little darkly, though she knew it wasn't completely out of malice that they had pulled their little prank however she was going to be the one to get the last laugh on Riley's parents if it was the last thing she did. Maya lead the way back to Riley's bedroom.

Meanwhile back at the bar Katie and Shawn were rooting for their respective teams, their meals were already brought to them and and as already very hungrily torn into, all that remained was a few French fries, some ketchup and a few little odds and ends of condiments like lettuce and such. They were on their second rounds of beer and their eyes glued to the large tv that was closest to them, it was a very close game they were late in the forth quarter. At some point Shawn tore his eyes away from the game and he glanced over at her and took her in for a moment or two and then he smiled, it was then that Katie felt a little self-conscious and looked over at Shawn who smiled at her and tried not to blush as much as he wanted to for getting caught staring at her,

"What?" he asked her with small giggle in her throat as she blushed a little bit at the way Shawn was looking at her, it wasn't anything to do with lust or anything of the sort. The way he gazed at her was with so much adoration and love for her, he deeply respected her for who she was. Even when things got tough with her husband leaving her with a kid she never gave up, never resorted to drugs or anything, she just picked herself up and kept pushing ahead to provide the best she could for Maya. Katie was a stayer and a fighter these things that he most admired in her because that's what he was, he was a stayer and a fighter as well. He had truly found a kindred spirt with her,

"Nothing." He said gently with a smile on his face and a gentle shake of his head, at this moment it was like the entire room filled with people melted away, the sounds of the game and the people talking fell away to what felt like a soft and gentle silence between the two of them. In this moment the two shared together was perfect, it felt like heaven on earth, and then suddenly everything rushed back to existence the way it was before they had their moment when the crowd on tv at the game went wild and the crowd there at the restaurant went just as wild as the game got exciting, in that moment Katy looked over and joined in the crowd and went wild as well. He didn't look at the Tv he just looked at her and watched her go wild at the game and he just smiled and gazed at her for just a moment before he turned his attention to the tv and caught the final and most exciting play of the game before it ended, and much to his dismay the Philadelphia Eagles lost and by just one score, he hung his head and smiled and then nodded his head,

"Ha! Take it Eagle boy!" Katie cheered and gloated a little bit happy that her team won,

"Yeah yeah yeah, we'll get you next time." Shawn replied back not phased by her teasing, he smiled at her again,

"Another round?" He asked her with a smile, even though his team lost he knew that this place was going to liven up quite a bit and it would be fun to party a bit with Katie,

"Sure I'd love one." Katie replied happily as she downed what was left of her beer and put the bottle back on the table and smiled at him, Shawn signaled for the waiter to come and he ordered two more beers for the two for them. As soon as Shawn was preoccupied with ordering another round of beers for the both of them Katie allowed herself a moment look at Shawn, it kinda astounded her how much their relationship had changed from her kinda hating him for how abrupt he was when he had the wrong idea about her not being there for Maya's birthday to now. She was glad things had changed for the better between them, she was glad she took a chance on a guy, because ever since then things had been better. Maya was happier and more focused in school, things between her and Maya were a lot better now that she knew it wasn't her fault that Kermit left, and well they were all happier to be in each other's life. In that moment she smiled at Shawn even though he wasn't paying attention, Shawn turned around and put the beer down in front of her and one in front of himself and she smiled,

"Thanks." Katie said as she took the beer in her hand and raised it up for a toast,

"To a good night." Katie said with a smile on her face and waited for Shawn to do the same, and to that he did. He got his beer and lifted it and clinked his beer with hers,

"To a good night." Shawn replied with a smile of his own before he took a drink from his glass and Katie did the same.

Back in Riley's room Riley and Maya entered the room, the movie they were watching ended and Maya lead her way in, she was still a bit fuming at the way Topanga had pranked her,

"Come on Maya, let it go. It was a joke, I'm still laughing." Riley said trying to get her friend to calm down,

"No way, your mom started a war that she doesn't know shes not ready for." Maya said determinedly,

"Well come on, its my turn to pick the movie!" Riley said trying to change the subject and hopefully distract her friend from the dangerous task of thinking and by extension thinking about getting revenge on her mother,

"All the more reason why it's the perfect timing to think about how we're going to prank your parents back." Maya said still determined and fixed on getting even,

"Oh no." Riley said as she knew things were going to get very interesting tonight.

 **A/N: Ok so going to end it here, sorry the update took so long. Life kinda got busy for me and I kinda boxed myself into a corner here but I hope this chapter is good and I hope you all enjoyed it. As always please read and review!**


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